Advocaat: SPL stance a farce

Tuesday 8 January 2008 00:05 BST

Dick Advocaat believes Scottish football will be branded "a Mickey Mouse competition" by the rest of Europe after the Scottish Premier League refused to extend the season to aid Rangers' UEFA Cup hopes.

Advocaat's Zenit St Petersburg will face Rangers in the final in Manchester next Wednesday, one of six crucial games still to be played this month by his former club as they chase four trophies.

Advocaat has launched a fresh assault on the SPL after they refused to postpone Rangers' match with Dundee United on Saturday saying: "If you tell people in Russia or Holland about it, they'll say the Scottish competition is a Mickey Mouse competition."

He added: "The egos at the SPL have to think how long it's going to be before a Scottish club comes back to the UEFA Cup final again.

"They have said the Dundee United game is not off. But I don't understand how they can say that.

"They certainly won't understand the decision in Europe - and I cannot understand the decision. The decision is a farce - it is unbelievable."

In contrast, the Russian Football Association agreed to postpone three league matches in the build-up to the final almost immediately after Zenit had emphatically disposed of Bayern Munich in the last four of the competition.

Advocaat added: "After the game against Bayern, I said maybe it would be a good idea to scrap our remaining games before the final.

"On the night, they said they would think about - and the next day they had done it for us."